This is definitely one of those only in Korea stories that actually happens more often than you would think. This guy just got caught, but what an outrageous story anyway:
A U.S. soldier admitted in Korean court Wednesday that he had cheated on his wife and promised to marry his girlfriend in return for a sexual relationship, both crimes under Korean law.
Sgt. Jin-hong Han, 35, who is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, didn’t know he was committing crimes when he began an affair with a Korean woman this fall, his lawyer, Jung Jin-sung said in Uijeongbu District Court on Wednesday morning.
Still, through his lawyer, Han admitted to both crimes, and the Uijeongbu prosecutor requested a sentence of 18 months in prison. Judge Kim Byung-ju will sentence Han on Jan. 11.
So this guy is looking at a year and half in Korean prison, so that once again proves that SOFA agreement between the US and Korea does in fact work yet I’m curious if the Korea Times will proclaim that this is the first time a US soldier is to stand trial in Korea every time a US soldier stands trial in a Korean court.
Anyhow, the jail sentence seems more likely than him ever meeting the monetary settlement being demanded:
During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Kim asked Han if he wanted to deny anything his lawyer said. Han told the judge his lawyer was telling the truth.
Kim asked both sides if a settlement was possible in the case. According to Han’s lawyer, the wife has asked for $10 million.
$10 million dollars! Even if this guy was an O5 he couldn’t afford $10 million. He needs to just suck it up and go to jail. The Choenan jail isn’t that bad. Make sure you read the rest of the article because this guys act was so elaborate it was humorous.
The doctor behind the recent stem cell forgery scandal in South Korea has now officially stepped down from his position at Seoul National University after the university released it’s first report confirming the stem cell forgery:
South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk resigned from his university on Friday after the school said he fabricated stem-cell research that had raised hopes of new cures for hard-to-treat diseases.
A university panel, releasing initial findings of a probe, accused Hwang of damaging the scientific community with his deception, while South Korea’s government rued the scandal surrounding the country’s star scientist and said it may pull its funding for his research.
“I sincerely apologize to the people for creating a shock and disappointment,” Hwang told reporters as he was leaving his office at Seoul National University, considered the country’s top institution of higher learning.
“With an apologetic heart … I step down as professor,” he said.
It is really amazing how far this guy has fallen in such a short time. Just two months ago Dr. Hwang was the toast of Korea. He was hyped to demigod status by the Korean media and government for his ground breaking research. Now he is a national shame and dissapointment. This is not stopping him from trying to play the nationalism card though:
However, Hwang still maintained that he had produced the technology to create patient-matched stem cells as he claimed in a May article in the journal Science.
“I emphasize that patient-specific stem cells belong to South Korea and you are going to see this,” said Hwang, a veterinarian.
This guy and Robert Kim can both hang out and share playing to Korean nationalism one liners.
Make sure you check out Marmot’s take on this.
The anthrax shots may be coming to an aid station near you again:
A government agency’s ruling that the controversial anthrax vaccine is safe should clear the way for resumption of mandatory shots for military personnel, government attorneys argue in a new court filing.
A Dec. 19 ruling by the Food and Drug Administration that the vaccine is “safe and effective†against all forms of anthrax should lead to either reversing a federal judge’s ruling halting the vaccinations, or tossing the case out as moot, Justice Department lawyers argue in a request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
I wish they would make up their minds on this. I already had to restart the anthrax series of six shots once and I wonder if I will have to start over again. The first time I was stopped on shot #2. This last injunction I was stopped on shot #4. I am going to be pissed if I got to start from shot #1 again.
A Rand research study has confirmed something that I feel many military members would agree with:
Overwork is harder on military morale than deployments, and the military should consider providing extra pay and other rewards to people who put in unusually long hours, according to a new study by the Rand Corp. think tank.
The money or recognition would go to both deployed and nondeployed people under the recommendations in the study, “How Deployments Affect Servicemembers,†released Dec. 20 by Rand Corp.’s National Security Research Division.
The work was based on a combination of focus groups and surveys that looked at morale in the ranks and service members’ stated intentions to stay in or leave the military.
Researchers found people who perceive they are working longer than usual, whether at their home bases or while deployed, say they are less likely to remain in the military.
Deployments, when judged alone, tend to make service members more likely to remain in the military, said James Hosek, one of the report’s authors.
I think long work hours are something that absolutely kills morale. Especially when you are working long work hours for no reason. I have seen this to often in the Army where you have a supervisor that BSs around all day than likes to work late into the evening because he is not married or whatever other reason and keeps the rest of his subordinates in late with him, instead of giving the soldiers work to get done during duty hours.
There is nothing more frustrating than getting ready to go home at the close of business and then getting a meeting or work project dumped on you right before you are about to step out the door and have already called the wife to let her know you would be home for dinner.
Deployments are not bad and are in fact good for morale when the soldiers all believe in what they are doing. However, very few people believe in working till 2200 every night and that is what kills morale.
South Korean currency experts agree that the US counterfeit money allegedly being manufactured in North Korea is probably true:
South Korean currency experts agree it is highly likely that intricately forged US$100 bills are made in North Korea, as Washington has maintained. In April, a large stash of the “supernotes†— so called because they are 90 percent identical to the real thing — was uncovered in South Korea.
The notes are made with paper almost identical to that used for official U.S. currency. “What the U.S. uses in printing currency is highly classified, and because analysis of the materials is impossible, 100 percent exact replicas are also impossible,” says Seo Tae-suk of the Korea Exchange Bank, an expert at spotting counterfeit banknotes. “But in these bills, the materials are so similar that the sense of touch cannot distinguish them, and in that regard the fakes are 90 percent identical to the official currency.â€
However these expert opinions mean litte to the South Korean government:
Seoul says that is not enough to conclude that North Korea is behind the forgeries. It says while the evidence will easily support an assumption, it is insufficient to face down North Korean demands for concrete and irrefutable proof.
South Korea therefore hopes that the U.S. will produce more evidence soon. If the counterfeiting spat prolongs into a deadlock, it could paralyze attempts to solve the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
I bet South Korea wouldn’t be dragging their feet if it was their money being counterfeited.
The Cholla provinces of southeastern Korea have been with 54 centimeters of snow and more wintery weather is on the way:
The KMA yesterday issued heavy snow warnings on Changsong, Hampyong, Yongkwang in South Cholla Province and Kochang, Puan, Kunsan, Kimje in North Cholla Province.
The weather agency said that Seoul, Kyonggi and Kangwon provinces will receive 1 cm of snow Friday, while Ullungdo and Dokdo will receive 5-15 cm and Chungchong and Cholla provinces about 5-25 cm.
North Korea’s favorite useful idiot South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young during a meeting with Secretary Condoleeza Rice has offered US corporations to set up factories in the joint North/South industrial (AKA-slave labor) zone in Kaesong, North Korea:
The unification minister is on a six-day trip to the U.S. beginning Sunday. Chung also met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson and called on U.S. firms to set up operations in the Kaesong industrial complex.
“If U.S. companies operate in Kaesong, it would have a symbolic meaning,†Chung told Sampson. With regard to the request, Sampson was quoted as saying that U.S. firms would be able to have businesses in Kaesong as South Korean companies do. He added that as the U.S. evaluates the Kaesong industrial complex as important, it will help with the success of the complex.
What is sad is that there is probably US businesses that would love to take advantage of the slave labor available at Kaesong.
Something that got me wondering about this proclamation is; does this mean that Chung Dong-young is the personal spokesman for Kim Jong-il now? It seems like a sensitive subject like this involving North Korean sovereignty would be handled by North Korean diplomats not a South Korean. It seems like it would be offensive to North Korean to have a South Korean going around making policy about their territory.
If Chung is in fact speaking directly for Kim Jong Il now maybe we don’t have to worry about Chung becoming the next President of South Korea in the future which would be a good thing. He may instead be in the running to become Kim Jong Il’s successor instead.
